Orbit
by a lovely idiot
Summary: Lelouch&Shirley: —Obey my law of gravity.


**AN: **And I'm back! XD; Anyways, I hope you enjoy this; I know I did when writing. I think it's pretty nice. Kinda hectic, kinda weird, but good all the same.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Code Geass. Sorry!

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**Orbit**

_'We spin in circles, baby, 'round and 'round.'_

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"Ne, Shirley," Milly says while playing with a pencil, no doubt procrastinating from presidential duties and such.

"Mm," she replies, shuffling papers together and sliding them towards Lelouch to put away, "what is it?"

"Do you know," she begins, her voice so serious that he really doubts the question is important, "how the moon orbits?"

Shirley makes a point of giving her a confused stare, long enough to be noticed, before answering, "Er… I guess so. Milly, shouldn't you know that yourself?"

The blonde waves her hand, dismissing the remark as she laughs with her eyes-closed, smiling, "Of course I know! I'm just making sure that _you_ know, seeing as how you're a member of the student council. We should all be rather knowledgeable, right?"

With how brightly she's smiling, she doesn't seem to notice Shirley muttering, "Just ask Lulu if you want to see how smart we are…"

He blinks. Silently, quickly, he turns his eyes towards her. His mind is already running with questions, analyzing his fake memories as he tried to remember what had happened.

_'Ne, Lelouch-kun,' she says, the sweetest smile on her face as her eyes shine brighter than stars._

'_Mm,' he replies, lazily glancing at the book in front of him; how boring, 'what is it?'_

'_Would it be all right if I started calling you… Lulu?'_

There was a vague feeling of déjà vu, he remembers, because he had what he thought was the oddest of feelings, like he should say no and keep his distance from her. He ignored them, however, and let her.

What a fool he was.

"Anyways, anyways," Milly sighs, interrupting him from his memories, "do you know how it orbits?"

Shirley sends her eyes upwards, frown saying she was thinking as she put her finger on her chin. She tapped once or twice before slowly saying, a little unsure of herself, "Umm… well, it circles the Earth, right?"

Forever, he thinks to himself, trapped by the Earth's gravity to spin in circles, 'round and 'round, never allowed once to leave, have freedom.

It was captured by the Earth, held against its own will; Earth didn't even have to _try_ to keep the moon there.

Milly nodded in approval, taking it all in with unnecessary mm's and ah's. "Of course, of course. Well, technically, its path is elliptical I suppose. However! The moon has a secret."

"Eh? It does?"

"Yes! The world's top scientists observed it for quite a while before coming up with their thesis. In the end, they concluded that..."

"That," continues Shirley, leaning forward in anticipation. Lelouch takes this chance to stealthily sneak his chair just slightly away from her, as if by doing that he can somehow create a distance between them before he hurts her (again).

"That…"

"That?!"

At this point, Shirley is far too into the conversation, so much that he feels the need to chuckle. Shirley sends him a look, but turns her attention back to Milly, waiting.

"That," says Milly, smiling all the while; she's enjoying it too much, "one day, the moon will stop."

She takes it in, her face going from unimpressed to downright shock in a matter of mere seconds. "R-Really?! You mean it'll stop orbiting the Earth?"

Now, Milly's talking has Lelouch's attention. He puts down his arm and leans on it, looking bored and uninterested while he's really completely focused and intent on hearing the rest of her explanation.

"Exactly," she says, smiling even wider now that her members are listening to her, "you see, the moon has slowly been moving farther and farther away from here with each passing year. It only moves about an inch or so, but it's still enough to be noticed. Theoretically, it'll eventually have spun far away enough to be completely free from the Earth's gravity."

"What'll happen to it though? And Earth?"

"Ah, well, I suppose the moon will just float around in space. There won't be anything to hold it down anymore. As for the Earth… the tides will stop flowing, I believe, so that'll be a big problem for us. Not too sure on what else could happen."

His mind is reeling already, excitement and relief spreading across his eyes as he thinks about it; it may be silly to apply celestial bodies to Shirley and himself, but it all sounds the same in his head.

_'The moon will stop.'_

She can stop. She can stop.

She can stop.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day, she might be far away enough from him so that she doesn't have to be near him, close enough to hurt. He won't be holding her back from finding life, finding the happiness he took away.

She'll be _free_.

Shirley frowns, however, pondering what Milly said. "But that'll be pretty bad for us, won't it?"

And suddenly, he feels his heart take a painful lurch, bad enough to make him visibly flinch.

Milly nods, continuing the conversation as she doesn't notice Lelouch at all, "Right. I wonder how we'll deal with that. Well, we don't have to worry for now. It'll be a long time before that happens. We'll probably be dead by then."

Sighing, Shirley turns back to the work at hand, looking over the papers again before sliding them away. "What an incredibly cheerful thought, Milly."

Automatically, he takes the papers to look over, but inside, all he can think about is what that _pain _was. It was still throbbing in his chest, not nearly as bad, but still enough to be noticed.

Shrugging, Milly turns away to look out the window; the sky is a brilliant, bright blue. "Maybe so, but it really says something. We need to enjoy the moon while we can. It'll be gone forever someday."

That's when it hits him.

It's selfish and wrong, oh so wrong, but he doesn't want his moon to leave. He wants to keep her orbiting him, staying close and keeping him right, keeping him _sane_. He knows that her being close will only hurt her again, but he'd rather keep himself right and just have another chance at redemption because he can tell that she'd forgive him for anything and everything even though she really shouldn't because he's a monster and there are other people better for her and –

His mind gives him excuses but his heart knows that he'll do everything he can to keep her spinning.

"Oh, I don't think it'll be that serious," he says, smiling with a little happiness and a little sadness, "we'll probably figure something out to keep it spinning."

Milly says something like, "Oh, so he _was _listening!" as Shirley turns to him, a question in her eyes. "You think so?"

Nonchalantly, he shrugs. "Of course. The scientists will find a way to keep the moon orbiting, and we'll all be happy. It couldn't possibly be that hard."

"Perhaps the great Lelouch will solve our problems then," questions Milly, smiling in that way which is sure to bring trouble.

Sighing, he replies, "Like you said, Kaichou, we'll probably be dead, so I'd rather not."

The president laughs as Rivalz comes back to the room, and she's already launching into her next topic. Shirley and Lelouch are still looking over the endless amount of papers, shuffling and sliding them into a neat and orderly fashion. The clock ticks slowly, and the two settle back into a comfortable silence.

"Ne, Lulu," she says, startling him from the silence.

"Yes?"

She hesitates for a second but continues, "Were you okay earlier? You didn't look so good while we were talking."

He smiles at her, and the smile is kind and shining, but she can see the sadness in eyes, the skin stretching a little too much around his mouth. "It's nothing. I'm fine. More than fine, actually."

_As long as you spin, I'll be okay._

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**AN: **Leave a review, please? It would make my day! Oh, and I really, really hoped you enjoyed this, Cymoril Avalon!


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